12" wheel, 23" DOT street tires that are both smooth and quiet?

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I have a factory lifted Onward, and dumped the factory 23" kenda AT tires because they were serious noise-makers (esp. at higher speeds).

I'm still using the Club Car 14" wheels (which I like the looks of), but replaced the factory howlers with Street Fox radial DOT rated 23" tires.

https://www.golfcarttiresupply.com/e...ires-set-of-4/

These are essentially silent - huge improvement over the factory ones.

BUT, since I went with Lithium, my cart dropped 315 LBS and the ride is pretty firm. Not wanting to monkey with the suspension, I'm running 15psi instead of the 20 that is "recommended" by the tire mfg and that helps a fair amount, but considering further improvement possibilities.

So I'm thinking about dropping down to a 12" wheel, but still having a 23" tire (and I can get the same tire I have now in that size) and I wonder if there are soft-riding and quiet 23" tires out there for a 12" wheel that might be better options to consider? Would using the same exact tire (also same 23") but dropping down to a 12" wheel instead of my 14" give a substantially smoother ride with a little extra sidewall?

I like these tires, but wonder if there are better ones out there for softer riding (bumpy paths, expansion joints, poor paving etc..) . I value very true / round tires and the smooth ride they offer, and am a little leery of changing since the combo I have is very true / round, and ride is fantastic on a smooth street, even running in the high 30's.

Thanks for any insight or suggestions!

[Dragracer_Art]

Check the tire ply rating. That will have an affect on sidewall stiffness also.

2ply will be soft, 6 ply will be stiff, 4 ply is in-between. Pretty sure standard cart tires are 4 ply rated.

Obviously the load rating is an issue here... so if you are running a fairly lightweight cart, a tire with less load rating should be OK.

Obviously the more sidewall you have... the softer it will ride... so a 10" or 12" rim on the same 23" tire will definitely ride softer.

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Originally Posted by Dragracer_Art

Check the tire ply rating. That will have an affect on sidewall stiffness also.

2ply will be soft, 6 ply will be stiff, 4 ply is in-between. Pretty sure standard cart tires are 4 ply rated.

Obviously the load rating is an issue here... so if you are running a fairly lightweight cart, a tire with less load rating should be OK.

Obviously the more sidewall you have... the softer it will ride... so a 10" or 12" rim on the same 23" tire will definitely ride softer.

Thanks!

Just wanting to make sure I'm not over-expecting from dropping down one wheel size. I'm not sure a 10" wheel is an option for 23" DOT tires, plus that combo would look pretty odd.

Another thing I notice is that some road / street type tires seem to have more of an oval footprint on the road - as in the outside edges seem to be slightly off the pavement. The tire I'm using has a square footprint that basically has the entire tread pattern square against the pavement, then the sidewalls rising vertically straight up quickly.

Seems like the standard 'ole 18" turf tires are oval footprint type as well, so the tire has some "spring" to it, but I guess on the pavement you'd be wearing out the center of the tires before the edges.

[Dragracer_Art]

You could still try experimenting with lower air pressures. 15psi may still be too much on a lightweight cart.

When I started messing around with an old 71 VW bug last year, the first thing I noticed was the very reduced front tire pressures (22psi) vs the normal 32-35psi.
I originally had 35psi in them. The bug rode harsh, was very skittish and darty.
After dropping the front tires to 22psi it was like driving a Cadillac... since all the weight is in the rear and the front is very light. Lesson learned.


Honestly... I wouldn't be afraid of running your tires down to 10-12psi to experiment a bit.

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Originally Posted by Dragracer_Art

You could still try experimenting with lower air pressures. 15psi may still be too much on a lightweight cart.

When I started messing around with an old 71 VW bug last year, the first thing I noticed was the very reduced front tire pressures (22psi) vs the normal 32-35psi.
I originally had 35psi in them. The bug rode harsh, was very skittish and darty.
After dropping the front tires to 22psi it was like driving a Cadillac... since all the weight is in the rear and the front is very light. Lesson learned.


Honestly... I wouldn't be afraid of running your tires down to 10-12psi to experiment a bit.

I agree - good thought.

These tires are rated at 800lbs / tire @ 20psi.

So my cart is 810 lbs with no passengers now (stock weight -315 lbs - and I weighed all the parts that came out and ones put back in, including cables hardware etc...)

Going to guess weight distribution rear / front is maybe 60 / 40 (w/out passengers) ?

Max passenger load in my case is 500lbs, with most being in the rear (4 seater), bringing total max loaded weight to 1,300lbs. 60% of that is about 800lbs, but with 2 people on the back the weight distribution is probably 70 / 30 so say 910lbs max load on the rear tires - 455lbs each, which is about 60% of the 20psi 800lb max load.

So 60% of 20psi would be 12psi - if it is a linear weight loading -vs- tire pressure reduction situation.

So using this math I could run 8-10 in the front probably, but I'm not sure it works that way.

I have only run it down to around 14psi front and rear, but maybe I'll try 13 rear and 10 front.

I just don't want to risk a de-bead on a turn or something like that, even if the load bearing part is OK. Just don't know enough to be sure.

Edit: I'll say after I had these tires first mounted I felt one of the rears wasn't quite right on the rim, so deflated down to 2 psi - maybe less, I can't remember, and drove the cart really slowly a short distance and back to try and seat the bead exactly. I couldn't even tell the tire was low by looking at it I remember...

[Dragracer_Art]

I think you will be OK with the lower pressures.

Just keep in mind... as pressure goes down, rolling resistance goes up.
You will lose some top speed, and runtime on the batteries.

There's always a trade-off.

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Originally Posted by Dragracer_Art

I think you will be OK with the lower pressures.

Just keep in mind... as pressure goes down, rolling resistance goes up.
You will lose some top speed, and runtime on the batteries.

There's always a trade-off.

Oh yeah - I'm aware.

Speed - it took too much to get it and I do hate to give some back. Actually one of the main reasons for considering 12" wheels and same tires with higher sidewalls - was that maybe I could still run the high(er) pressures that keep speeds from sagging but with a gentler ride over those bumps.

I'll say I only noticed a speed decline of 1 mph going from 18psi down to 15 according to my older notes, and that was a max of 1 mph - it maybe was only half of that. It was very close in any event.

I'd just hate to lose 2-3 mph and take a bit of a range hit by going with 10-12psi, but I'll just run the experiment and see what it costs on the speedometer. And then there's the tire wear question...